It's 10 minutes before kickoff for the first of six OHSAA state championships. Mooney and DeSales begin at 11 a.m. at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
There's about 8,000 people in the stands and nearly that many in the press box.
Light overcast, lots of blue in the sky but cold enough to be football weather. Looks like a great day for some games.

There is little I dislike more than adults spreading rumors about high school kids.

Five weeks in. Five weeks to go.

I think it is safe to say that Carrollton and Minerva are the most surprising teams to get to 5-0. Hoover RB Erick Howard seems to be piling up yardage recently. Louisville loses its QB and running back but keeps marching on.

From Todd Porter's Sunday Special column in The Repository: 

Fresh off his program’s 10th state football title in 20 seasons, St. Ignatius head coach Chuck Kyle is meeting this weekend with Team USA coaches this weekend
Defensive coordinator Steve Specht of Cincinnati St. Xavier and offensive coordinator Gary Swenson of West Des Moins (Iowa) Valley will meet with Kyle tonight and Saturday at St. Ignatius. They will be developing an outline for the team, begin assembling a playbook and develop a practice schedule for the June 15-26 practice camp in Stark County, according to a USA Football release.

You never know going into championship weekend which ones will provide thrillers and which ones will be blowouts. The two games I'm looking forward to seeing are both Saturday.

There's some false rumors making their way around Web boards concerning Hoover standout tailback Erick Howard.

He's suspended for Saturday's game against GlenOak because of a fight at school. Not true.

He's hurt and can't play Saturday. Again, not true. And taht goes toward the young man's will. You try carrying the ball 35-40 times a game and not succumbing to all the bumps and bruises going into Week 13.

Good luck to the Eagles and the Vikings this Saturday.

Stark County football fans should enjoy this weekend. What's happening doesn't come around too often.

Only six other times have three or more Stark teams reached the regional finals. This year, Hoover plays GlenOak in Division I, and Louisville plays Columbus DeSales in Division II. Add in Dover (Division III) and Malvern (Division VI), and the area can boast of five teams in the regional finals for the first time.

Everyone is pointing to Louisville as the team with the best chance to move on, but the Leopards likely face the toughest opponent in top-ranked DeSales.

Louisville plays in Zanesville. Tuslaw goes to Twinsburg. Malvern is headed to East Liverpool.

Hoover, GlenOak and Canton South all stay in Stark County.

What's too far for you to travel with your team?

I've advocated in the past doing away with regions and seeding the top 32 teams in each division regardless of location. One of the reasons is to avoid Week 11 matchups of games we've already seen -- McKinley at GlenOak, Northwest at South, New Philadelphia at Dover.

East Canton is going to Norwalk on Friday, and Louisville hosts a team from Columbus, so it's not like a lot teams aren't traveling long distances. What do the fans like, though? Let me know.